Edmonton to be without pro baseball for a second consecutive season after Capitals unable to land a home for 2013

After a winter with little in the way of news regarding pro baseball’s future in Edmonton, Darryl Porter – vice president of the league-less Capitals baseball club – will address the issue today at Rexall Place at 1 p.m.

Porter will officially announce the Capitals continued suspension of operations for the 2013 season, after failing to find a new home. The team suspended operations a year ago, sitting out the 2012 season, following the collapse of the Cap’s former home the North American Baseball League, which fell apart after the team’s 2011 league championship.

As was the case last season, the Edmonton Prospects of the Western Major Baseball League are expected to call Telus Field home this season, while the Capitals continue their search for a new league, with the hopes of playing in 2014.

While the news does mean the Caps aren’t permanently throwing in the towel on finding a new league, it nonetheless marks a serious disappointment to fans who were holding out hope that pro ball would return to Telus Field this year.

Making sure the Caps find a sustainable, long term home has been among Porter’s top priorities since taking on the task of charting a new course for pro baseball after the NABL’s demise.

Despite Thursday being another bad news day for baseball fans, the news isn’t coming entirely out of left field, after Porter hinted that the Caps returning in 2013 was looking increasingly like a long shot heading into the New Year.

“We’re looking at a few different options, and we’re still analyzing them. Definitely the time is getting short now to play this next summer, but we haven’t totally given up on that yet. If that time does pass, then we probably won’t play again this summer, and then, we’d absolutely want to get back in it the following summer,” Porter said at the time. “It’s all about sustainability. At the end of the day, we don’t want to go into a league like we did last time.”

The issues of finding a stable league, negotiating a long term lease agreement with the city for Telus Field and working towards having teams in nearby markets, remain the key hurdles to professional baseball’s return and longterm viability in the city.

Here’s a quick timeline of pro baseball in Edmonton:

1981: The Pacific Coast League comes to Edmonton, after former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington buys the Ogden A’s for an undisclosed amount. The Trappers are born in a move Pocklington characterized as “a good deal.” The team goes 62-74 in their inaugural season north of the border.

1982: Slugging left fielder Ron Kittle puts together arguably the greatest season in Trappers history, belting 50 home runs. Kittle would go onto play for Edmonton’s major league affiliate at the time the Chicago White Sox in 1983, where he was an all-star and earned American League rookie of the year honours.

1984: Edmonton adds baseball to its City of Champions resume, as the Trappers win the Pacific Coast League title. The team becomes the first Canadian team to win the championship in the league’s 82-season history up to that point.

1995: The Trappers moved into their new home, Telus Field. The 10,000 seat facility was seen as a way to ensure AAA baseball’s long term viability in the city and replaced the 60-year-old John Ducey Park.

1995-1998: The Oakland Athletics begin their affiliation with the Trappers starting with the 1995 season, kicking off a period that sees the team enjoy its greatest success on the field. Edmonton wins back-to-back PCL titles in 1996 and 1997, before the A’s shipped their affiliation to Sacramento.

2002: Edmonton, the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins at the time, secures its fourth and what turns out to be final PCL title. The Trappers downed the Anaheim Angels’ affiliate the Salt Lake Bees 3-1 in the best-of-five series.

2003: The Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League, owners of the Trappers at the time, sell the franchise to a group led by Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan. The Ryan group announces its intentions to move the team to Round Rock, Texas for the 2005 season.

2004: The Trappers play their final season in Edmonton before moving to Texas, where they remain to this day as the Round Rock Express.

2005: Florida businessman Dan Orlich brings independent pro ball to town with the Edmonton Cracker-Cats, who join the Northern League as an expansion franchise for the 2005 season.

2007: After three seasons in the now defunct Northern League, the Cats announced a jump to the Golden Baseball League in the fall of 2007. They began play in the GBL, which is also no more, in 2008.

2009: Oilers owner Daryl Katz buys the Cracker-Cats for $400,000 in February of 2009 and subsequently renames the franchise the Capitals, as the franchise looks to erase the missteps of the Cracker-Cats, who failed to capture the imagination of both casual and hardcore baseball fan alike.

2011: The Caps complete what would end up being their lone season in the newly formed North American Baseball League, winning the league title over a hodge podge assortment of players from various NABL teams, playing as the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings.

2012/2013: In February the Caps announce they’re suspending operations for the 2012 season after the NABL collapses. Nearly a year later the team announces it’s sitting out yet another season, as they search for a suitable home long term.

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